Right on, Write on.

Keeping a blog is one of those things.  No, not those things. Those things.  One of those things that appear unnecessary and superfluous on the surface.  It "eats" time and takes energy that could and "should be spent elsewhere.  Such as in writing "legitimate" pieces, be they poetry, essays, letters, or even email correspondence.  But the fact is, as I often discount, keeping a regular journal -- online or otherwise -- often makes this other writing easier and more productive. 

Sigh.

Still, I have a terrible time allowing myself to write a blog or a friendly letter when I know I have so much else I "should be doing."  Such as paying work.  But I digress.  Here I am.

This past week was wonderful for planting seeds and for finding motivation to write.  Last Thursday I managed to make it to the local monthly poetry workshop group.  It's thanks to that group that I manage to write even one poem a month.  I mean, I have to have SOMETHING to share there.  So I usually write it in the 30 minutes before I have to leave.  I wish it was a bi-weekly group instead. Two poems a month would mean I would probably have enough for that collection I've been working on for about 5 years now...

On Saturday, thanks to my husband and a good friend who watched my kids for a couple hours, I managed to make it to the SCWW Writers Intensive workshop/lecture.  It was good, though I was only able to stick around for the first half, and I caught the speaker who was less relevant to my work.  Still, the opportunity to network was wonderful, and the speaker managed to convince me I need to do some work capturing and gathering some family memories, if only for the sake of handing the stories down to the next generation.  Ideally, though, I would love to write them into a Dave Eggers style novel/memoir.  I even went as far as to tell my mom the plan.  I'm not sure how on board she is, but I think she'll help.  I hope so.  She and her siblings will be essential to this.

On Sunday I had the privilege of attending a moonShine review release party.  The day was HOT, but there was a pool, wine, plenty of good food, and a crowd of people who I respect very much and whose work I enjoy.  Not the least of these people was the hostess of the party and chief editor of moonShine, Anne Hicks, who also edited my chapbook, Lemonade & Rumors.  It was wonderful to see her.  And, frankly, I ate up the encouragement she doled out, prodding me to get that second collection done.  She wants to edit it, which would be wonderful.  Her help with the last collection made the experience such a rewarding one.

Still, since Sunday, what have I written?  This.  Period. 

But at least I've written that much, right?

CHAPBOOK UPDATE: From my editor

Subject: Your chapbook should be ready by end of week!

Hey Julie,

Of course, I'll follow up with you when your chapbook is in hand, but I saw the proof today on your chapbook and it looks GOOOOOOOD!

I'm VERY excited!!!

LOL,

Anne

CHAPBOOK UPDATE: Contract and Readings -- let the fun begin!

Yesterday I received, signed, and returned my contract for Lemonade & Rumors. Yay! Now it's just a matter of waiting for the printer to get around to my book.

Meanwhile, I've got my first "Featured Poet" event set up! Granted, it's over 5 months away. So, on Tuesday November 7, 2006, I'll be doin' my thang at a certain Charlotte-area Barnes & Noble. :)

Don't worry, I'll remind y'unz guys. ;)

In other non-poetry news, yesterday was our third wedding anniversary. We didn't get to do much of anything special, but we did get to go out for a late snack after munchkin was in bed. We stayed up too late, but fell asleep too early. (Preggo heartburn bites, I'd like to mention.)

CHAPBOOK UPDATE: Final TOC & page count

After much deliberation, we pulled a few pieces from the earlier proofs of the book. The page count was putting us over budget, and to keep the poems meant messing with the visual flow of the book. And we couldn't have that. SO. I made the painful call to pull even more pieces so now the final count is 44 (down from 51) and 42 pages.

In case you haven't guessed yet, the release date has been pushed to June, but it'll be ready to go to the printer by the end of the week. My apologies to those who've already preordered it and are itching to get theirs. SOON. Very soon. Anyhow, to recap, it will be released through THRIFT Poetic Arts. The book will be perfect-bound with 42 pages and a whopping 44 poems! If you would like to pre-order, $7 USD sent to artjewl@artjewl.com via PayPal will reserve your copy and include shipping within the US. (After the book is released, S&H will be an additional charge.) Be sure to include the address you'd like the book sent to if you place an order!

PS - if you'd rather send a check, let me know and I'll give you the address.

In the meantime, here's the LEMONADE & RUMORS TOC as it stands:

1. Disclaimer
2. Formication
3. Kernels Garnered in Reading, Pennsylvania
4. "Clear Prop"
5. out of the dust
6. I woke
7. Your Grasp, Tested
8. Weathering
9. A Testament of Blooms
10. Dear Julianna
11. beyond you, sister
12. forcefully
13. residual hauntings
14. Toasted Tomato-Peanut-Butter Sandwiches and Soap in the Mouth
15. gypsy moth
16. enTitled
17. Our Failed Casting
18. By the decade
19. our early hours
20. mistimed flirtations
21. Her Zucchini Confessions
22. I've forgiven you for using a mug
23. Icing
24. Under the bare March-blue sky
25. the prozac dreams were better
26. Shed Skin and Ashes
27. Sustaining
28. To the Floodstained Mother
29. Internal Bleeding
30. the normal psychosis of mothering
31. The Piece I Lost In the Shower
32. Cold Iron in Human Hands
33. Churchgoing
34. Where between
35. the weight of her faith
36. My First Scar
37. fifty-two
38. from the bed
39. Debunking Creation Myths
40. Shells
41. In the moment when I forget
42. Burrs Where We Walk in Fields
43. Just In Case I Die Today
44. over tea

CHAPBOOK UPDATE: Like shaving too close with a dull razor.

So, I had another meeting with my editor last night. Seems my beautiful book was putting us over budget, so we needed to cut about 8-10 pages. Ouch.

She suggested removing 3 pieces that took 4 pages. Then we doubled up more poems (cutting an additional 3). But I couldn't bare to pull one of the 3 she suggested, so that meant we'd only cut 2 poems (and 2 pages). I suggested another page for cutting, so we were back down to 7 cut, still not enough. And then I couldn't handle one of the pairings she'd suggested -- it was too crowded. So we were back up to 6 cut. So we moved the pub credits to the end of the TOC, the acknowledgments to my bio page, and my "Disclaimer" poem to the Editor's Notes page.

Ick.

Anne is going to make a mock up with our changes and we'll go from there. I'm afraid that it's far too crowded. So I'm still trying to figure which poem(s) I can stand to pull.

The comfort is in knowing I'm only pulling them from this manuscript, not throwing them out or something like that. I can still publish them later or send them to journals in the mean time. It's just hard. Especially since the collection really is very tight as it stands. I feel like I'm playing Jenga and any piece I pull has the potential to make the collection collapse.

Still, what a learning experience!

In other news, I think we've decided on the stock for the cover. It's a bright yellow, brighter than I thought I'd like, but the black tones it down lots. (Yes, the cover is black/grayscale on yellow.)

And I still have to write my frickin bio and acknowledgments.

But it's all good.

LEMONADE & RUMORS Chapbook Progress: Table of Contents

Just had a meeting with my editor last night. We ordered the poems, pulled a few more and got together a tentative Table of Contents (excluding stuff like acknowledgments & bio & title page). So, really it's just a list of the poems that will likely be included in the order they'll be found.

Because both my editor and the printer are a little bit overwhelmed with projects at the moment, it looks like the release will unfortunately be pushed to May. Not a big deal except that I really was looking forward to having some of "National Poetry Month" (April) to promote it. But it's cool. Having it out in May will make it a nice birthday gift to myself.

Chapbook Progress

Had another meeting with my editor last night about my chapbook. (I still get giddy at saying "my editor"...) I would like to say, first and foremost, that I am so glad I am not self-publishing this. It's amazing how much of a growth experience this is – more so than I think it would be if I were doing it alone. It helps immensely to have that second opinion, outsider's perspective.

So anyhow, we're still in the process of sorting my stuff. We've probably given half of them a +/- as to whether they should be considered for the book. Well, more than half of them. But we'll have too many "yes" pieces for a chapbook. So it looks like next meeting we'll finish that process and start going back through to make more specific considerations on pieces as they fit into the collection.

And I am trying to think of titles... I've been stuck on "Lemonade and Rumors" since it snuck up on me this summer. But I don't know if it fits the book or not.

Which raises another interesting topic (well, sorta interesting): the theme of the book. It's mostly on the aspects of my "woman-ness," and if that sounds weird to you, you're not alone. It sounds ... I don't know. Just so feminist. Which is not something I've readily identified with, at least not consciously. Anyhow, the broken down themes include: Woman as Writer, Woman as Individual, Woman/Woman Relationships, Woman/Man Relationships, Growing Up, Motherhood, Aging, Death, and Faith. Not all of the themes will necessarily appear in print, but that's the break-up of the work now, with the bulk in the Woman/Man category. Just need to cull out my recurring lines and phrases and not overdo specific themes.

Anyhow, that's the news. Timeline talk is still about the same, though maybe only printing in March, releasing in April. It will be released in April (National Poetry Month!)

Oh, and I'll take advanced orders at a discounted price as things get more squared away... :)